An
old Spanish proverb says, “Lord, send us not the gift of getting what we
want, but of wanting what we get.” Learning to adjust to the inevitable
— like realities that change without asking your permission or, if they
do ask, don’t wait for the answer — seems a wise and prudent policy. On
the other hand, if you can’t tell a new Millennium where to get off, who
can you tell? In any case, concentrating on preferences, hopes, and dreams
for the future moves one off the much more perilous path of predicting
that future.

What do we want
from the years to come? What dreams do we wish could come true?

The whole world
should go online. Some people estimate that as many as 1 billion of the
world’s 6 billion people now have some form of access to the Internet and
its Web. More conservative statisticians estimate some 150 million souls
occupy the Global Village. Whatever the count, it isn’t enough. Of course,
to bring people everywhere online, we have to make sure that people everywhere
have the educational background to use and to take advantage of information
tools. People everywhere should also have sufficient resources, influence,
and autonomy to make decisions that can improve their lives and their communities.

Hmm. Is the tail
wagging the dog here? Have ideals like freedom, individual rights, democracy,
strong economies, and universal education become computer peripherals?
Perhaps they will. The Internet has a curious habit of confounding the
laws of man and nature. It empowers users, and from that sense of empowerment,
who knows what wonders — and horrors — can grow?

Computers should
become human. They have already begun to talk and listen. Soon they will
learn to answer questions. They will acquire personalities, if only as
humans “anthropomorphize” their life companions. As they perform more mundane
tasks, computers will have to get friendlier, if only to maintain good
channels of communication with users. Although few of us may want HAL in
our homes, we might not mind having a nice invisible friend, one with a
soft Majel Barrett voice like the computers in Star Trek.

In time, computers
will learn to think. In time, they may become persons. A science-fiction
fantasy? Of course. But somewhere out there R2D2 and C3PO await. And wouldn’t
it be wonderful if humankind has begun a journey along a path that leads
to the highest accomplishment in our universe — the creation of intelligent
life? It could happen. After all, science fiction has a success record
for predicting reality that is at least as reliable as that of think tanks.

Authors should
become answerers. Why publishers anymore? Why not let authors communicate
directly with readers? Then when users have questions or opinions or comments,
they could address authors immediately and have a chance for a useful response.
This would certainly help business and technical information usage, but
it would also help policy planning and scholarship in general. Clarification,
currency, customization of material to user needs — all these benefits
would ensue. In fact, this would contribute to the mutual education of
readers and authors both.

Of course, some
functions currently provided by publishers would still need doing, but
most of them could be jobbed out. For example, authors need editors. (Sorry,
authors, I love you all, but you do need editing. Believe me!!) Readers
need editors, too. An editor could work like a brand name in identifying
quality sources, relevant topics, appropriate connections. Both authors
and editors need funding, but that could come from advertising agents that
book specific ads for specific authors or editor collections. Publishing
that depends for its revenue on advertisers must concentrate on the widest
possible distribution of material. In the Web age, that means e-mail distribution
with little or no limits on redistribution. Copyright control freaks need
not apply. In any case, no one needs a large printing plant anymore, not
in an era where even full-length books can be printed and bound on demand
and delivered locally. Of course, permanent works require permanent storage
and permanent access. So authors and readers both still need librarians.

Librarians, not
libraries. Everyone should have access to all the information they need
or want all the time. This has been the grand goal of librarians since
before Julius Caesar’s troops burnt the library of Alexandria. In the past,
such a goal was a valuable, inspirational image, but an impossible dream.
No longer. But to pull it off, we’ll need to pull together as a profession,
to break out of existing institutional models, to create new ways to work
and new sources for funding this great goal. To do that, we need more fame
and glory.

The creation of
the Great Digital Library represents only one reason for librarians and
other information professionals to elevate their profile in the world.
As more and more data centralizes through networking and more and more
millions of people come online both as users and as creators of content,
people everywhere will require guides through the massive data array. They
will need brand names they can trust. E-commerce firms, authors, institutions,
editors, government agencies, not-for-profit organizations, publishers,
and many more alternatives will vie vociferously for the trust of users.
As a profession, we must lay claim to our traditional role of serving the
public, of defining professional success in the satisfaction and welfare
of our clients and this alone. We must protect our users.

To do so, we must
let the people of the world know that a library is only what’s left over
when a librarian goes home at night. We must burst out of our buildings
and shake off the limits of print formats While enhancing the profession
as a whole, we must put a face on individual librarians. No demanding profession
expects equal performance from all players. Uniform, identical functionality
is what you get from AAA batteries, not from skilled, high-performance
professionals. We should offer the most personal service to more and more
people by using the most automated tools.
As a first tiny
step toward this grand goal, let us all campaign vigorously to change the
names of our professional organizations to identify their true membership.
At present, the only information professional organization that recognizes
it contains people is the Association of Independent Information Professionals
(AIIP). All the rest — American Library Association, Special Libraries
Association, American Association of Law Libraries, Medical Library Association
— claim to represent buildings or institutional constructs.

How curiously comforting
it felt to get that last little bugaboo off my chest. It’s bothered me
for years. And how nice to think that the Golden Age into which we march
will have room for gadflies, bugaboos, and bees in bonnets. If it were
not so, neither Searcher’s readers nor editors could survive. For us, Attitude
is All.

Not all the events
lying between humanity and the Fourth Millennium will be kindly ones. Of
this, there is no doubt. But as we pause and survey the time that lies
before us, let us hope for the best, work for the best, and insist on the
best.

Look out, Time!
Move over, World!! Here we come!! The Winners!!

...bq

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In addition to
the thanks that goes out to all our authors and columnists (and, in the
case of the columnists, that’s an eternal salute of gratitude), we owe
a special thanks to the people who helped produce the little glimpses of
wisdom and fun you will find scattered throughout the print and Web site
renditions of this issue. Actually, the print version of this issue needed
fewer "fillers" than we expected, but the ones we had gathered were so
good that we decided to include them all on the Web site. Check them out
at http://www.infotoday.com/searcher/.

One title in particular,
the Library of Congress’ Congressional Research Service’s Erroneous
Predictions and Negative Comments Concerning Exploration, Territorial Expansion,
Scientific and Technological Development: Selected Statements,
compiled by Nancy T. Gamarra and last issued in revised form on May 29,
1969, exemplifies the everlasting need for great librarians and the great
libraries they build. Ms. Gamarra, whom I never met, produced this charming
collection of “how I wish I had never said that” memorabilia. I remembered
filing the fascinating little pamphlet decades ago in a “vertical file”
(aka file cabinet), when I worked a day job at the RAND Corporation. We
used to pull it out every time one of our researchers needed proof that
no prediction process was ever perfect.

In trying to recover
it after all these years, I implored the aid of some of my leading librarian
friends. We discovered, to our horror, that not only doesn’t the Web contain
all human knowledge — true, that ugly rumor has already gained wide circulation
— but traditional online has holes in it too. Not even mighty OCLC carried
the citation.

No fear. A much
earlier form of information gathering proved effective. It’s not what you
know, it’s who you know! One of my leading librarian friends had a friend
at the Library of Congress’ Congressional Research Service. A quick e-mail
message and months of worry boiled down to a 2-day FedEx journey. And so
a special thanks to Donna Scheeder at CRS.

Once again, thanks
to the strangers who helped provide the little gems
for this Millennial Issue. To wit: Robert Byrne, comp., 1,911 Best Things
Anybody Ever Said [New York, Fawcett Columbine, 1988]; Princeton Language
Institute, 21st Century Dictionary of Quotations [New York, Philip
Leif Group, 1993]; James Reston, Jr., The Last Apocalypse: Europe at
the Year 1000 A.D. [New York, Anchor Books/Doubleday, 1996]; and Robert
Lacey and Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What
Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium: An Englishman’s World
[Boston, Little, Brown, 1998].

You know, when
you stop and think about it, a document is a wonderful testimony to humankind.
Someone — out of love or need or interest — takes the time and trouble
to collect and record knowledge or create entertainment for people they
will never meet. And the people they will never meet hire librarians to
collect and distribute the largesse. And now the Web continues the process
with electronic archives into a new millennium.